Pompeo Struggles to Survive 'Anatomy' Lessons

In some projects, actors have a great deal of influence over their characters, but most of the time, they just learn the lines, show up and try to make it seem real for the audience. Very often, just like fans, they look at characters' actions and say, "Huh?"

That's frequently true for Ellen Pompeo, who plays romantically confused surgical intern Meredith Grey on the hit ABC medical melodrama "Grey's Anatomy," which closes out its second season with a three-part finale (one hour airs on Sunday, May 14, and the next two on Monday, May 15).

The series launched with Meredith's one-night-stand, which turned into a major complication when her paramour was revealed to be Dr. Derek Shepherd (Patrick Dempsey), a top surgeon at her Seattle hospital. Worse yet, he also turned out to be married -- which didn't stop the mutual attraction or flirtation.

"It's done very much on purpose," says Pompeo of Meredith's quirks and flaws, "to create a female lead character who is very flawed. Shonda (Rhimes, the series' creator and co-executive producer) feels like she's diving into new waters there. You know, I don't really have much of a say. I just show up and say my lines. There's no collaboration on the characters and the writing. This is a 9-to-5 job. I have to show up and say what they write.

"Some of the individual scenes I struggle with, and that's OK, because if it's a struggle, I'm learning. My biggest fear about doing a series television show is that I would be bored. But at the same time, there are episodes where I struggle with the choices that Meredith makes. So something I say a lot is, 'Why hasn't she learned this lesson? Why hasn't she learned any lesson? Why does she keep making these stupid mistakes?'

"She's smart enough to make it through medical school, but she can't figure out that she shouldn't be sleeping with strangers."

Of course, there are worse things than sleeping with strangers. As she pined for Shepherd -- nicknamed "McDreamy" -- Meredith ignored the steadfast admiration of fellow intern and roommate George O'Malley (T.R. Knight). At a low point this season, Meredith gave in and slept with George before bursting into tears of remorse and spurning him. That caused a serious rift that affected both their personal and professional lives.

Admitting that Meredith's choices frustrate her "all the time," Pompeo says, "Sleeping with George was definitely, definitely, definitely a top frustrating moment. I just didn't understand why she would make such a massive mistake and sleep with someone who is close to her. I just can't. I could never justify it, and I still can't.

"That's probably the most frustrating thing."

Many fans don't understand Meredith's actions either, to which Pompeo says, "Well, Shonda understands it, and that's all that matters. In series television, they need these catastrophic events to happen, to supply the next five episodes with material.

"It's a catalyst for all the little waterfalls that have to happen, so I understand it from a writing standpoint, why things happen. But you do have to bring them to life, and when you don't understand something, it's quite difficult to do that."

"Grey's Anatomy" marks Pompeo's first gig as a TV series regular, and she didn't come to the job through the normal audition process. She had screen-tested for another ABC pilot about the Secret Service, but then-ABC chief Lloyd Braun didn't think she was right for the part. It eventually went to "Prison Break" star Sarah Wayne Callies, but the show didn't get picked up.

"To his credit," Pompeo says, "Lloyd said, 'She's not right for this, but she's right for this untitled Shonda Rhimes pilot.' He just didn't slam the door in my face. He slammed one door but opened this one."

Appropriate for a show that thrives on melodrama, its trip to the screen wasn't smooth either. The pilot pleased ABC executives and critics, and "Grey's Anatomy" went into production for midseason. But January 2005 came and went, and there was still no airdate.

"If you had asked me at the beginning of March last year," Pompeo says, "I would have told you the show was not going to make it on the air, because it was March 5, and we still didn't have an airdate. I just figured that they didn't like it, and they didn't want to break it to us, that we had finished the 12 episodes, and we would never see them again."

"Grey's" finally came on the air on March 27, 2005, for a planned limited run and was such an immediate hit that it permanently displaced "Boston Legal" from the plum post-"Desperate Housewives" slot.

The result was a whole new experience for Pompeo, which has led to an increased emphasis on discipline.

"I've never been employed this long in my life," she says. "I've been working for 10 months. We're not done yet. We have two episodes to go. I try to sleep as much as I can. My diet is extremely important. I train like an athlete. I've got to eat a lot of brown rice, eat all the time to keep my energy up, try not to eat a lot of sugar, because you get those highs and lows from it. I can't crash at 8 o'clock at night. I have to be good until 1 in the morning at least.

"I try to really take care of myself, do yoga every day. I try to get to the gym at least four times a week. Some episodes are easier than others to achieve."

Sometimes, Pompeo envies the schedule of her show's studio-lot neighbor, FX's "The Shield."

"They have banker's hours over there. They're out at 7 o'clock every night. It's really not fair. It's so unfair!"